Fickle steam units.. or is it me??

If you are smelling something burning and do not see smoke it may be a lack of smoke fluid in the batting and that smell. is the batting charing on the resistor. Just a guess, there is more Black Magic to the smoke units than science, or so it seems.

Fred

Yes, drop five or so drops in to add a bit.  You probably are not in danger of overfilling it if you see no smoke coming out.  

Make sure the fan is rotating.  Not sure what 3rd party item you are using, but when you can hear and smell the resistor element working/burning but not seeing any smoke that usually means the fan is not working, or a piston not pumping for mechanical units.

Beside the pushing of the smoke out the stack, the airflow is also a required cooling mechanism to keep the element from overheating and the wick from burning.  G

Every engine comes with a manual and there is a guidance on how many drops to add. I have found the guidance to be conservative and typically exceed it without any issues to date.

Another thing to consider is the routing/plumbing many diesels have to get the fluid to the smoke unit. after adding fluid you usually need to gently blow down the stack to free any blockage. I also have one steamer where the fluid always sits in the stack and will not smoke til I blow down the stack.

Fickle? Absolutely!  Good Luck!

First have you checked to see if smoke unit is on low-medium or high setting sometimes it's the little things that bite us.

if that isn't an issue try this below.

Try this add 10-15 drops of smoke fluid and leave engine unpowered for 1 minute.

now power unit up set smoke unit to high wet your index finger with water put it over exhaust stack if you feel coolness on finger smoke motor is working.

start engine in motion see if it smokes now. 

I adopted this rule since the newer smoke units came to be and so far they work I also found sometimes my lips get an oily residue from even a light puff of air!

remedy most have someone we know who dyes there hair that dye squeeze bottle does wonders to the miniscus held hostage of smoke stacks a small squeeze from that empty bottle eliminates that issue and basically it's a free tool!

hope this helps you

I use the same air duster can i use on my PC keyboards to blow the puff of air into "Lionel" stacks instead of just blowing air with my lips.

Not sure why Lionel smoke units always seem fickle, whereas my MTH smoke units just work with no further steps required.

Blowing down the stack is a good way to clear the meniscus that sometimes forms on the exit to the smoke unit, blocking the smoke from coming out. Nothing wrong with canned air or a squeeze bottle, but the old fashioned way works fine. To test for whether the fan is turning, hold your face close to the stack and feel for an air stream with either your cheek or the spot right under your nose. Those are the most sensitive areas of your skin and they will detect airflow that you can't feel with your finger. 

Legacy units flash the cab lights to indicate a malfunctioning smoke unit. Check your manual for the code. 

I have had to use a puff of air down the stacks of both MTH and Lionel diesels (all I have is diesels). If you let this go long enough, smoke will start coming out of places it shouldn't and panic will set in. First time this happened I thought the $$$ electronic boards were burning up inside the engine, puff of air down the stack and all was well again.

I will try the canned air and then also putting more fluid in.

Update:

I put a lot more drops in the Lionel engines and they then worked fine.  Mission accomplished.

I now have an issue with the F7 SP AA.  I have it set in Legacy mode but the second unit is NOW having the (beloved) three flashing lights.  This frosts me as I got the engine from Santa.  So in addition to the smoke unit issue, I have an issue on the traction tires (seperate discussion).

REALLY disappointed in this

John

It seems that these smoke units need fiddling and adjustment to work well. We need a new design.

Bob C.

I have the Burlington AA set still unopened. I have read plenty of comments about the supplied traction tires being too big with the MTH tires being a tad thinner and working better.

I called Lionel they are sending me a set that fits.

if you want to ask yourself the question, "why not supply them with that initially you can, I sure did."

John